Balder and Dash | Roger Ebert: There are dozens of alien languages spoken by at least as many different life forms in "Star Wars: A New Hope", but when you remove English, the language spoken by its main characters, something sweet happens: The film's images and sounds, which are as familiar to many of us as a close relative, become almost new. Dubbed in Navajo (with English subtitles), it's as if "Star Wars" has dyed its hair a color that makes its eyes pop and its teeth gleam anew.
8 comments:
This is truly amazing!! I really like the idea of translating art into a variety of languages and this is a perfect example of how art is changed through languages. James Earl Jones' voice is so iconic in this film and I think that it would be interesting to see how that style translates into other languages. The other interesting comment made by this particular article is that this is the first time that C3PO is voiced by a woman. The article stated that this woman voice adds a more rounded tone to the character. I would be fascinated to watch this with subtitles and see how it changes my experience.
THIS IS AWESOME! The article is very well written and got me all pumped up to watch STAR WARS again, but in Navajo!! I would love to watch this version of Star Wars and see what it is like. I am really intrigued to see how the the voices sound and how all that works out. I just got all excited to watch it again. How the voices have changed and to experience a little differently. Sound exciting!! Glad they did this, I think this was and is a great ideal.
I love Star Wars and I find it very cool to hear about how it can be even more powerful by giving it a new cultural context though language. I love art that is transformed in ways that it was not intended to be, and then is really amazing. I thought that the article did a great job talking about the feelings and relationships that the new voices bring to the surface. I wish that the article had included a small clip of the film so that I could begin to understand what they were talking about for my self. I think that it's almost always better to show then to tell.
I think that it's really great of the film's owners to allow this project to happen, because I know that the rights to this film must be very in demand.
Way to go! The concept here is really nice to think about. I understand that star wars has uncountably been dubbed into dozens if not hundreds of languages so that it can spread its audience, and each of these languages lends its own nuances and emotions to the film (from personal experience the Russian version makes the empire a little bit more evil). But the dubbing for the purposes of cultural broadening is wonderful. I think its especially interesting that something "modern" like Star Wars was used to expand what is regarded to be a dying language, and in around my home in Santa Fe, is bemoaned to be so. Good Job :)
I checked to see if there were any youtube videos of it because there's a big difference between reading about a cool idea and seeing that idea performed. Honestly, I felt a little guilty. The description for the video was "funny." The guy in the video is laughing as well, especially during the parts where there was no Navajo translation to an English word. Words like Darth Vader, Jedi Knight, Empire, etc all stuck out like a sore thumb, and I don't know if this film brought people closer to the Navajo Nation. I'm sure people would not make the historical connections that the article made. I think the idea is good, and I don't think language should be a barrier, but I have a really bad feeling that audiences will not take it seriously. I think society is too immature to do so.
Translating such an amazing film into such a beautiful, historical and fading language is an amazing act. Kudos to Lucas and co. and the individuals that took this project on. I wish I had had the opportunity to be at one of the showings. It's interesting to think of how the different inflections and nuances of the language can so deeply effect of the tone of the film and "give it new life". I have to disagree with Lindsay and say that I have no doubt that audiences took this seriously, considering it only had eleven showings and one of them was at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian - that's generally not a place where you go to take things lightly.
I have to posit the main reason that Star Wars is more palatable in subtitle is because one isn't subjected to the awful dialogue that, while perhaps intended as a throwback to the "old-Hollywood context," as the author of this article maintains, is still undeniably awful. Lucas has never been "celebrated" for his dialogue simply because he doesn't deserve to be. Hat to step on the toes of any Star Wars die hards here (Jake, if you're reading this, I'm sorry), but I think even the most ardent Lucas apologist has to admit that while his characters modestly succeed in evoking the mythical archetypes on which they are based (see Rashomon and the Seven Samurai...), their emotional depth bottoms out just below sixth grade. Which would be fine if Lucas had stayed away from anything remotely signifying natural realism, but Lucas wants it both ways, because he believes he is a great film maker. He is, in my opinion, not. If seeing the movie dubbed in Navajo brings some aspect of metaphor to the given circumstances, I can see why it also might lend bulk to the flimsy characters, in that they can be understood as speaking to a larger truth that relates to someone's, really anyone's human condition. As it stands in its native tongue, the corn-ball dialogue and half-drawn relationships only serve to water down the fairy tale elixir that Lucas and his team so magically concocted.
I would love to hear this rendition of Star Wars. Changing the language of a film usually comes along with a ton of changes in how everything is seen. Like Many of Miyazaki's films are originally produced in Japanese and then later dubbed in English. It completely changes the feeling of the film, sometimes for the better and other times not so much. I'll have to see if I can get a hold of Star Wars in Navajo.
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